ABC News' Jake Tapper Calls Attention to the Anti-Gay Views of the College That Hosted CNN's "Compassion Forum"

On April 13, presidential candidates Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama engaged in a discussion with people of faith about their views on various social issues during CNN's "Compassion Forum." CNN chose Pennsylvania's Messiah College as the location of the event.  As ABC News Senior National Correspondent Jake Tapper noted in his blog, Messiah is an evangelical college that explicitly equates being gay with sinfulness in its "community covenant." The college, Tapper explained, also advises its gay students to partake in so-called "ex-gay" counseling. Tapper additionally quoted several comments from readers concerned about Clinton's and Obama's presence at the anti-gay school. "How can politicians appear at a college that espouses these ideas and then turn around and court the gay community at the same time?" one reader queried.  Unfortunately, CNN's "Compassion Forum" never raised such questions because it provided the candidates no opportunity to even generally discuss their views on LGBT issues. Hopefully, more national journalists will follow Tapper's lead by questioning the candidates' commitment to LGBT equality and by examining and calling attention to the views of the sponsors and hosts of political events.

Cindi Creager is Director of National News